Terry F Kraus III, Fulton Grace – Scofflaw leasing agent of the day

The Illinois Real Estate License Act requires written authorization before a licensee can advertise a property for sale or for rent.

Leasing agents at Chicago rental services routinely advertise properties without having the required authorization. They violate the law so extensively that Craigslist and other websites are cluttered with illegal ads. That clutter frustrates and confuses renters into using rental services.

Terry F Kraus III, Scofflaw of the day
Yesterday’s random scan of Craigslist surfaced an ad placed by Terry F Kraus III of Fulton Grace Realty for a property that the firm does not have written authorization to advertise. We quickly identified additional properties advertised by Kraus without authorization, and he’s our “Scofflaw leasing agent of the day.”

Several Kraus ads contained copyrighted images owned by YoChicago and used without permission.

Kraus was licensed as a leasing agent in mid-November of 2015. Based on his Facebook postings he worked continuously as a leasing agent beginning in mid-May of 2015. The IDFPR License Lookup surfaces no indication that he was registered as a Licensed Leasing Agent Student. In any event, he apparently worked beyond the 120 days that’s permitted under a student license.

Kraus’ Facebook profile and page, and his LinkedIn profile, hold him out as engaged in “Luxury Sales.” Leasing agent licensees are not legally able to represent buyers or sellers in real estate transactions.

It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who engage in one form of illegal behavior are highly likely to engage in others. It’s also been our long experience that the principals of many Chicago rental services routinely lie to leasing agents about which properties they’re legally authorized to advertise. If you’re a leasing agent, you need to see the written authorization before you place an ad.

Leasing agents need to know that playing fast and loose with legal and ethical standards can alter the trajectory of their personal, professional and social life in a very negative direction for a very long time. Google search will ensure that the illegal and unethical conduct of a rental service scofflaw becomes known to his or her potential renters, friends, family and prospective future employers and business and social contacts.

We’ll be on the lookout for our next scofflaw of the day. We encourage renters and property management firms to nominate individual leasing agents for that distinction.

Google name search for previous Scofflaw of the day awards

  • Daniel Khomutov, Vesta Preferred
  • Hannah Vanover, HotSpot Rentals
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